ENVIRONMENTAL  SCIENCE  &  ENERGY,  INC.

Construction  Defects,  Seismic  Hazards,  &  Structural  Integrity  Inspection

 

YOUR SOLUTION FOR GREENER AND SAFER STRUCTURES AND INFRASTRUCTURES

(520) 625-8346

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CLIMATIC AND OTHER DATA;  PRECISE, PINPOINT  DATA  INTERPOLATION  TO SPECIFIC LOCATIONS;  ANALYSIS;  HIGH RESOLUTION  DATA  MAPPING

 

CONSTRUCTION  DEFECTS AND SEISMIC & LANDSLIDE  HAZARDS  ANALYSIS,  STRUCTURAL INTEGRITY INSPECTION & REINFORCEMENT, REQUIRED ANNUAL RAILROAD BRIDGE INSPECTION

 

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE,  GLOBAL WARMING,  SCIENTIFIC  INSTRUMENTS,  AND  WARNING SYSTEMS

 

FORENSIC DISCOVERY  AND  EXPERT WITNESS TESTIMONY

 

METEOROLOGY / WEATHER  FORECASTS,  SEASONAL  WEATHER  OUTLOOKS, ALERTS,  CERTIFIED  HAZMAT  TRAINING, CERTIFIED  WEATHER  OBSERVERS

 

RENEWABLE  ENERGY  GENERATION:  WAVE,  TIDAL,  WIND,  SOLAR,  OTHER

 

RESEARCH  &  DEVELOPMENT,  STUDIES, PUBLIC LECTURES,  OTHER  SERVICES

 

      

 

Bridges, Tunnels, Railroads, Highways, & Public Works Infrastructure:

Structural Integrity Inspection for Construction Defects, Foundation Failures, and Seismic Hazards Determinations, plus Repair,  Reinforcement,  Restoration, and  Reconstruction Services by Civil Engineers and Other Scientists and Engineers

 

President Obama has urged government funding of at least $75 billion for the repair, reconstruction, and replacement of aging and deteriorating bridges, highways, roads, and other infrastructure in the United States. 

The Federal Railroad Administration has published a set of requirements for annual inspections of all railroad bridges in the United States:  Bridge Safety Standards, No. 49 CFR, Parts 213 and 237,  Department of Transportation.  For the complete text of this publication, go to  http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-19367.pdf

Once these regulations are implemented, every railroad bridge in the United States will be required to be inspected annually for structural defects and compliance with load capacity regulations. 

For more details on railroad bridges and the required inspections, plus remedial services, that Environmental Science & Energy, Inc. and our associated companies can provide, go to our  Railroad Bridge  page.

Many of the bridges referred to below are suspension bridges, including numerous older suspension bridges whose cable strength has decreased over the years by 5% to 15% because of corrosion of steel and other components, plus general metal fatigue.  These factors are frequently compounded today by greater traffic loads (more vehicles and heavier vehicles on the bridge at one time) than those for which the bridges were originally designed.  Some of these bridges are in danger of sudden catastrophic collapse.  Many others may need to be totally closed in order to prevent an imminent collapse, with major loss of life, as occurred in sudden catastrophic collapse of the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minnesota in 2007. 

Charles B. Pyke, Ph.D., President, CEO, and Principal Scientist of  Environmental Science & Energy, Inc., offers structural integrity inspections for the determination of construction defects, foundation failures, and seismic hazards in structures and facilities listed below.  We also offer referrals for recommended repair, reinforcement, restoration, and reconstruction services for many of the structures found to be defective or in danger of collapse or severe damage in the event of a natural or man-made disaster or adverse event.   In addition, we offer design of new bridges and other structures and facilities.  These include, but are not limited to the items listed below.

Structures and facilities:   

  • Bridges, road and highway - spanning water, such as rivers, lakes, channels, and bays.

  • Bridges, road and highway - spanning roads and land features, such as canyons.

  • Bridges, railroad - spanning water, such as rivers, lakes, channels, and bays.

  • Bridges, railroad - spanning highways, roads, and land features, such as canyons.

  • Bridges, aircraft - runways and taxiways that are bridged across roads and railroads - many of which carry larger, heavier aircraft today than those for which the bridges were originally designed. 

  • Bridges, pedestrian.

  • Approaches to bridges - road and railroad.

  • Tunnels - road, railroad, and pedestrian.

  • Roadways and railways under airport runways and taxiways.

  • Highways, freeways, city streets, and other roads, including elevated highways.

  • Railroad and bus stations.

  • Railroad tracks, including elevated tracks.

  • Railroad tracks, including elevated tracks, worn down by weather, land subsidence and liquefaction, earthquakes, and years of train travel.

  • Railroad tracks that were not originally designed for today's heavy trains.

  • New high-speed railroad tracks and high-speed railroad trains.

  • Elevated railways.

  • Elevated roadways.

  • Elevated walkways.

  • Numerous other structures and facilities. 

The defects and hazards include, but are not limited to:

  • Faulty, shoddy, or generally poor original construction.

  • Construction that met building and seismic codes at the time of the original construction, but which fail to meet today's codes, and which could be a hazard to life and property in the future.  Some railroad bridges date back to before 1850. 

  • Construction that met building and seismic codes at the time of the original construction, but which have deteriorated over the years or were damaged or weakened by fire, weather, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, ground subsidence, landslides, avalanches, or blasts (including sonic booms and nearby demolitions).  Some railroad bridges date back to before 1850. 

  • Corrosion, over the years, of suspension cables and other structural bridge components - seriously compromising the structural integrity of the bridge.

  • Foundation failures of bridges and other structures, resulting from corrosion, earthquakes, subsidence, liquefaction, ground shifts, tsunamis, and/or gradual deterioration of materials from water currents and  weather. 

  • Landslides:  threats; slides that have occurred since construction of a structure and may have weakened the structure.

  • Damage caused by terrorist attacks, or hidden damage caused by sabotage or by attempted sabotage that appeared at first to have failed. 

  • Corrosion, over the years, of underground and above-ground natural gas, water supply, and sewer pipes and conduits.

  • Asbestos that may be present in some structures.

  • Earthquake faults and potential for major shaking or permanent ground deformation.

  • Proximity of a structure to earthquake faults and soil vulnerable to magnified shaking.

  • Earthquake faults that may be creeping gradually, slowly distorting or offsetting bridge or railroad track alignment. 

  • Potential for subsidence of the soil beneath a structure, including differential subsidence within a structure's footprint.

Services Offered: *

  • Structural integrity inspection of the structure or facility.

  • Structural integrity analysis for damage, deterioration, or corrosion over the years.  Included are inspection and structural analysis of suspension cables of older bridges that are subject to metal fatigue and steel corrosion in critical suspension cables. 

  • Construction defects determination.

  • Foundation failure determination.

  • Investigation of catastrophic failure or major damage resulting from earthquakes, storms, or human-generated activities (terrorist attacks, sabotage, major accidents, etc.). 

  • Seismic and landslide hazards determination and seismic safety analysis

  • Analysis of earthquake creep potential, and the resulting distortion or offset of bridges, railroad tracks, and roadways.

  • Repair of defects.

  • Mitigation, overhaul, or renovation - partial or total.

  • Asbestos removal, where applicable.

  • Reinforcement and strengthening of the structure or facility.

  • Shoring up of the sides and ceilings of tunnels.

  • Restoration or reconstruction of the structure or facility.

  • Protection against maximum credible earthquake.

  • Protection against maximum credible wind event.

  • Demolition or removal of entire structure or facility.

  • Replacement of entire bridge or other structure or facility.

  • Design and construction of new bridges, tunnels, railroads, highways, or public works infrastructure - U.S. and overseas.

  • Design and construction of new high-speed railroad tracks and railroad trains.

  • Research into improvement in the construction of various bridges, tunnels, railroads, highways, and public works infrastructure.

* NOTE: Most inspection, evaluation, construction defects determination, seismic hazards determination, structural analysis, foundation failure analysis, seismic safety analysis, and/or other inspection-related services - plus construction, building, demolition, removal, repair, reinforcement, retrofit, overhaul, restoration, reconstruction, rebuilding, enlargement, and/or other building-related construction and remedial services - are referred to, and administered by, other environmental or engineering companies.  Clients are to deal directly and entirely with said referred environmental and/or engineering company or companies for any and all said referred services.  

Environmental Science & Energy, Inc. is not directly involved with any of said referred services. Environmental Science & Energy, Inc. does not manage, supervise, oversee, coordinate, or facilitate any of said referred services.  Environmental Science & Energy, Inc. hereby declares that our corporation is not, and cannot be held,  legally responsible for any of said referred services and that our corporation assumes no liability at any time - past, present, or future - for any  projects, cases, jobs, work, tasks, or other services totally referred to other companies or agencies.

This caveat does not apply to most services offered directly by Environmental Science & Energy, Inc., including our data services, environmental planning and assessment, forensic expert and testimony services, weather forecasting, certified weather observers, certified hazardous materials training, global warming modeling, research and studies, public lectures, scientific software, and scientific documentaries, plus most scientific instrumentation and some of our renewable energy development (not requiring the installation of large hardware items, which are referred to other companies - in which case this caveat does apply). 

 

For more information about these services and other programs:

Telephone:    Environmental Science & Energy, Inc.:  (520) 625-8346,

       cellular (520) 310-9931 or (775) 742-5376.  Alternate (520) 625-8316.

FAX:  Call (520) 625-8346 to obtain fax number.

e-mail:  Call (520) 625-8316 to obtain e-mail address.

Mailing address for Dr. Charles B. Pyke, President & CEO: 

   P. O. Box 1747, Green Valley, AZ  85622-1747

Mailing address for Timothy E. Wright, Chairman of the Board: 

   1222 West, 630 South, Logan, UT  84321.

Mailing address for Timothy E. Wright, Chairman of the Board: 

   1222 West, 630 South, Logan, UT  84321.

Billing and payment address:

   P. O. Box 292760, Phelan, CA  92329-2760.

 

 

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